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The Relevance of the Word of God (Romans 15:4)
11 Plays3 days ago
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
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Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message.
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If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org.
Introduction to Romans: Doctrinal and Practical Sections
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And now, take your copy of God's timeless Word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
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Welcome to Growing in Grace. Today I want to talk about the book of Romans. You know, the letter to the Romans has been divided by most Bible scholars into two primary sections.
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First, you have a doctrinal section presented in chapters 1 through 11, and then you have a practical section that begins in chapter 12 and unpacks the Christian life until the end of the letter in chapter 16.
Timeless Relevance of the Bible
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I would like for us to look into that last section where we are instructed in how to live a victorious Christian life.
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You know, Romans 15, 4 is sort of like a parenthesis. It's right there in ah Romans chapter 15, and it's almost like he takes a step back.
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And Paul reminds the reader of the validity of citing Old Testament texts as a basis for ethical exhortation to Christians, whether they were living, let's say, in Paul's day in the city of Corinth, where he was writing this from, or an ancient day described the Old Testament, such as David's time period, or even in our day.
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in any of our modern cities. The Bible is so relevant. It can connect with us. It doesn't matter if, let's say, we're discouraged. That's what I'll be teaching on actually tonight here at our church as we look into 1 Kings 9.
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But if you're discouraged or depressed, then you can find hope and you can find comfort in Scripture. Or if there are fears or anxieties or some kind of bitterness or grumbling or whatever it might be,
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you can find something in God's word that will help you for real life. And that's why it's always relevant. It doesn't matter what generation. It doesn't matter your location.
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Just stay in God's word. So let me read Romans chapter 15 and verse four. Just one verse today, but this verse has so much to offer.
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Listen to what it says. For whatever was written in former days... was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.
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What a great first. Let's ask God to help us understand it. Lord, we always go to you and ask that you give us understanding of your word. And so your Holy Spirit ah was there when your word was written, inspiring those that were moved by your spirit, and exactly what they needed to write.
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And so we come back to you now and say, give us the understanding that we might know how to apply it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, let's begin with that first little word, for.
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For, it's a term of x explanation. You know, ah it's sort of referring back to what Paul had just said in verses 1 through 3, especially the last part of verse 3.
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So let me read it so you have the context. We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. And not to please ourselves.
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Let each of
Old Testament's Continued Applicability
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us please his neighbor for his good. To build him up. For Christ did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
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Four. Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. So let's just pause right there and let's just look at this for a moment. What he's doing is in verse three, that last part, when he says, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. The apostle Paul is reaching back to David's day.
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When David wrote in Psalm 69, verse 9, he wrote a messianic prophecy that referred to Christ, and it refers to Christ not living for himself, but actually being willing to take the blows that our sins deserve, to pay the penalty, if if you will.
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The penalty of our sins, they were placed upon him. It's like my sins were placed upon Christ. His righteousness was transferred to me.
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What an incredible blessing that is. But he says, the reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me. it's It's a messianic psalm speaking in advance of Christ.
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You know, ah Jesus quoted the Old Testament over 300 times. The New Testament quotes the Old Testament 845 times.
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And so it's just amazing when you consider this little word for is a connecting point going back to the previous verse, which then goes back to, let's say, 1000 BC, back in the days of David,
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And it's reaching back there and saying, what was said back then applies to all of you in Rome who are trying to live the Christian life. Don't live for yourself.
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Remember how the Messiah, Jesus, took all those reproaches that we deserved and And he said, I will take them upon myself. Isn't that lovely how the Bible fits together so perfectly?
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Old Testament, New Testament, Jesus saying, look, I didn't come to destroy the law. No, I came to fulfill the law. And I think it's interesting how even in this one book, Romans, do you know that in the book of Romans, there are 51 people
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51 direct quotes from the Old Testament. So obviously, the Apostle Paul felt that even though it was written in times before his day, he thought it's still relevant.
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It still applies. There are 10 paraphrased Quotes, if you will, from the Old Testament that are found in the book of Romans. And there are 15 more.
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They call them allusions. It's like a not not exactly a quote, not even a paraphrase of a quote, but it they're referring back to it. It's like an allusion to it.
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So I just thought to myself, you know, that's really incredible that the Bible constantly reaches back and quotes from others, you know, that were way before them in time.
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And I got to doing some research and I found that all the books of the New Testament, every single one of them cite the Old Testament. Only four Old Testament books are not quoted at some point in the New Testament.
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Those four are Obadiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Esther. Wow, you know, it's amazing. There's only one quotation from the Song of Solomon, but yet it's in there.
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So I'm just so impressed that the Bible fits together so perfectly that whenever you quote even an Old Testament verse, it still applies. It's still inspired.
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It's the Word of God, which leads me to the second point I wanted to make.
The Bible's Divine Inspiration and Plenary Inspiration
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Whenever he goes on to say, for whatever was written, in former days was written for our instruction and so forth.
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But I wanted to sort of pause it there when it says, for whatever was written, whatever was written. You know, there's a theological term used in a lot of conservative circles that says the plenary, the plenary inspiration of Scripture. And what it means is whatever was supposed to be included in God's Word, it was included in God's Word.
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That's what it means. When you go over to a couple of other New Testament passages, they actually refer back to how significant all of those Old Testament scriptures were.
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For example, if you were to go to 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21. It it says knowing this first of all that no prophecy of scripture comes from someone own interpretation for no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man but men spoke from god as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
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Do you see what God's trying to do? He's trying to sort of strengthen our confidence that the Word of God is exactly that. It's something that God has inspired.
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No wonder Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3, verse breathed out God. sixteen and seventeen all scriptures breathed out by god Did you catch that word? All, all of it.
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Old Testament, New Testament, every book, all scriptures is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training and righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
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So I think it's amazing that he uses these words was written, which is prografo in the Greek. It means beforehand and to be engraved.
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to engrave beforehand. So God wrote all of these things down so that we can know them, so that our lives could be equipped and changed. I love that how it's like 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21 refers to the process of inspiration, but 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17 that I just read refers to the purpose of inspiration.
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God's trying to get you ready for life, for service, to accomplish the the the plan that He has for your life.
Bible's Creation Timeline and Its Relevance
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But notice the generations ah that are applicable for the scriptures, or the scriptures are applicable to every generation.
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When he says, in former days, for whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction. So now he's over in Paul's generation, but I think he's referring even to our generation.
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You know, the Bible applies to multiple generations. You do realize that, right? Like, for example, the Old Testament was written between 1450 and BC. That's about years.
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the new testament began to be recorded and written down in 44 AD and lasted through 95 with the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.
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So that's about 50 years. But then if you put between those two huge time periods, the 400 years of silence between the Old Testament and the New Testament, then the grand total time there, it's it's over 1500 years.
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And so just think about all of the different ah generations that were referred to during that time. And like I said, I mean, Psalm 69 that was quoted by Paul here in verse three, when he goes back to Jesus, and ah back to David and refers to Jesus, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.
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Well, that was in 1000 BC. And so this is just amazing. You know, i love it how Psalm 102 verse 18 says, let this be recorded for a generation to come so that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord.
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You see, that's why it was all written down. Romans was written, let's say, AD 57. But what happens if a generation forgets or never hears the word of God? It's trouble. It's trouble.
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And Judges 2, verse 10 can tell you, after Joshua, who followed Moses, after the death of Moses, then after the death of Joshua, something did not take place.
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They did not pass the baton. They did not hand off the torch. Whatever terminology or metaphor you'd like to use, Judges 2, verse 10 says, there arose another generation that did not know the works of God.
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They didn't know them. Evidently, they didn't hear them or they didn't want to hear them. Either way you go. But still, the Bible is written for multiple generations.
Purpose of Exhortation in Scriptures
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Our generation, David's generation, Paul's generation, all of those in between those and before those. Let's go to a fourth thing. How about the exhortation from the scriptures? The exhortation, he does say here in our text in Romans 15, 4, that the scriptures were written for, there's a purpose, it's it's introducing a purpose clause, written for our instruction.
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There's a wonderful passage in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 6 through 13. If you want to jot down a note about that one and check it out later, but he starts in 1 Corinthians 10, speaking about Moses' day and that generation and all that they faced and their challenges. And sometimes when they were tempted, they gave they gave way and they gave in to the temptations.
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But so why was it written? He says in 1 Corinthians 10, 6, and later in verse 11, I think it is, the Old Testament was written so that the lessons would not be forgotten.
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That's why. there's ah There's a commentator who wrote a long time ago named H.A. Ironside. And Ironside said this about the scriptures. and I think he was spot on.
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He said, all scripture is not about me. but all scripture was written for me. Did you catch it? That all scripture is not about me. I'm not written in there in the Bible anywhere, but all scripture is actually for me. That's why it was written down. And that's what Paul's trying to get across to the people in Rome. And that's what I'm trying to get across to you and those in my community.
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But I want to look at a fifth thing. And as that is the fortifications. that can come to a life through the scriptures. He brings up a word here that reminds me of fortification.
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And that word is the word endurance, that through endurance of the scriptures, the word there would be endurance, or you could say perseverance.
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It's the word hupomeno, which means that regardless of what circumstances are on top of you, maybe you're it's just piled on. You say, you know what?
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I'm going to remain under the pile. Hupo means under. Minno means abide or remain. So endurance means the ability to stand up under pressure.
Scripture as a Source of Endurance and Encouragement
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Wow. Maybe that's what you need. And so perhaps you've been writing off the scriptures and thinking, yeah, those were written a long time ago. How can that possibly help me in what I'm facing today?
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Well, We really are not facing anything that different from what others in other generations before us have faced. For example, James 5, verse 10 and 11 alludes to this when it says, as an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
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Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of job And you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
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You see, sometimes we feel like God's not compassionate. He's not merciful. But we read the story of Job and suddenly we realize, you know what? There's another spiritual force that's out there.
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And while God is a God of order, there's someone else that's trying to cause chaos. And he's trying to hurt people. And he's trying to ah make us stumble. And of that, of course, is the enemy, Satan.
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But when you think about the prophets, I think about Jeremiah. Jeremiah was doing the right thing. He was speaking the truth that God had revealed to him, and he was thrown into a pit.
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It was a deep well that was no longer being used, but it was still muddy down there in that well. So he was thrown down in that well. He had to be rescued. Later, he was placed in stocks because he did something wrong.
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No, no, he didn't do anything wrong. And that's the same story with Job. Job didn't do anything wrong. And yet the enemy says to God, you know what?
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He only serves you because you have such a hedge of protection. You take that down and let me get after him. And he'll curse you, God, right to your face, right And God says, okay, here ah here are the parameters of what you may do.
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And these are the parameters of what you may not do to my servant Job. But you know what? Job did not. He did not curse God. He stayed faithful to the Lord.
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And in the end, what we learn is that God was favorable toward Job all along. And he gave him more than he even had at the beginning. But it's not just, well, the fortification.
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It's also something that I would say the word consolation. Someone who's going to console you or comfort you. Someone who's going to encourage you. You know, he also talks about that through the encouragement of the scriptures.
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That word encouragement there is a different word than the word for endurance. That word was hupomeno in Greek. But the word encouragement in Greek is para kaleo.
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Para kaleo. Para means alongside. But what does kaleo mean? Someone called to be alongside of you and alongside of me.
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When we're living real life right now in this day in which we live, someone's been called to be alongside of us. Do you know who that is? the The New Testament speaks in the Gospel of John about someone known as the comforter.
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Some translations don't use the word comforter. They use the word helper. So someone who's a helper, someone who is a comforter. And so that someone is the Holy Spirit.
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And so here he's saying, if you'll stay in the scriptures, they're going to be just like the Holy Spirit. They were called alongside of you to comfort you and help you whenever you're going through adversity.
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And, you know, I thought it was interesting how this word actually means not to stand up under the pressure of adversity, but this word refers to someone who speaks to you in such a way that it enables you to progress in spite of adversity.
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Yeah, that's the word. That's the biblical word that he's using here that refers to ah encouragement. That same word is used in 1 Thessalonians 5.11, where Jesus,
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were Paul is writing to another church, the the church in Thessalonica, and he says, you know what you folks should be doing? He says, therefore, in encourage one another and build one another up just as you're doing.
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Almost those words are are used in this greater text surrounding our text where, you know, he says, let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.
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So you see, life is not just about me. I'm always looking for how I can encourage someone else. I actually feel that's my spiritual gift, is the gift of exhortation.
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So consolation that comes to us through the scriptures. But there is one more, one more incredible gift that reminds us, ah, that's why the word of God is still so relevant.
Bible as a Source of Hope
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Do you ever need hope? You know, sometimes, Life can just knock the hope out of you. It can, you know, just like one time my dad was sort of like a fill-in coach when my baseball coach couldn't be there. And I normally play third base, but on this particular day of practice, my dad was hitting balls around the horn, around the bases.
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And so he said, we got someone, Victor, that can play third, but I want you to go and play first base. So I said, okay, dad, I'll play first. And I thought my dad, when he threw the ball in the air, I thought he said, third base coming to you.
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But you know what he said? He said, first base coming to you. So I'm the first baseman and I'm looking at the third baseman and I hear the crack of the bat.
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and the third baseman doesn't look ready. And I thought, you know what? That guy needs to pay attention. The ball is coming his way. But while I'm thinking that, somewhere in there, I hear the sound of the baseball coming right for me.
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It hits me right in the bread basket, right in the stomach. It knocks the wind out of me. I mean, I couldn't even speak. All I can remember from that day was when I was laying on the baseline at first base and I couldn't breathe.
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And I hear my dad saying, son, if you're not going to play first base, then at least roll out of the baseline. Give me another first baseman. And anyway, my dad and I laughed about that so many times after that.
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But you know what I had? I had the wind knocked out of me. You ever have the hope knocked out of you? You need something that you can look forward to, something that you can say, I know I'm moving for better days.
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I can anticipate something that's coming that's better than what's happening at this exact moment. That's where the Bible comes in. Hey, let me tell you, it's so relevant at that point.
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You know, the Greek word for hope is elpis, and it's mentioned 17 times in the book of Romans. I mean, I'm not talking New Testament wide.
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The book of Romans itself is filled with references to hope. Not only that, but let me encourage you with these final words. Do you know that out of those 17 times that hope is mentioned in the book of Romans, four of those times are are mentioned right here in the chapter we're looking at in chapter 15.
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For example, we saw in this verse, in verse 4, how we can be inspired by hope that is found in the Scriptures, right? But if you were to go to chapter 15 and verse 12, you would see it says, and again Isaiah says, you know that can experience hope through Savior?
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to rule the gentiles in him will the gentiles hope you know that you can experience hope through the savior Man, you can be inspired by the hope that's found in the scriptures, and you can experience hope through faith in Jesus Christ.
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But sometimes even when you have experienced hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, you can kind of need that hope renewed. No problem, because Romans chapter 15 and verse 13 says this, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
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So he's not talking about a little trickle of hope or a little tickle by hope. Oh no, man. He's saying you can abound in hope regardless of what the circumstances are.
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I'm telling you, that's why of the Bible is so incredibly relevant. Man, go to the Bible when you need hope. Because chapter 15 and verse 24 says also that we can learn about hope through a servant.
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You know, the apostle Paul was saying to the the people in Rome, look, I'm not going to be able to come and see you right now because I need to take an offering over to Jerusalem. But you know what he says in verse 24, same word, elpis.
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He says, i hope hope. to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to be helped on my journey there by you once I've enjoyed your company for a while.
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Why did Paul keep going to all those different cities? I mean, all those different countries and so forth. He's now wanting to go to Spain. He's wanting to go to Italy, to Rome and all these different places.
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What's going on? Why does he do that? I believe he he did that because he knew that out there somewhere, Somebody needed to learn that there's hope in Christ because they didn't know.
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And so he wanted to share with them the promises that are found in the word of God about hope.
Immersing in the Bible as Spiritual Guidance
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Let me tell you, friend, the Bible is just, it's there for you. It's one of the great assets in your life.
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If you would just learn to open it up and access all that is available to you in the scriptures, they'll tell you what you have in Christ.
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You know, i was thinking about something that I read earlier. that John Newton said long ago. Here's what he said. Read the scriptures not as an attorney, may read a will merely to know the sense, but as the heir,
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reads it as a description and proof of his interest. Man, that's totally different, right? i mean, the the attorney is going to tell the family this is what's written in the will, and he's going to read it sort of matter-of-factly, right?
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But not not the ones listening. They're going to be saying, did my dad, did my grandfather, did that loved one, did they include me in their will?
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And I want you to know that the Bible is like God saying to me and you, here's what I have for you. This is what I have so that you can live the rest of your life in abundance, in victory, with great peace, with great joy, with great power and and strength.
00:28:28
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You don't have to limp your way through life. No, not with the scriptures at hand, not with Christ saying, come to me, come to me. If you need rest, if you feel overworked, come to me and I'll give you rest.
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Why don't we go to the Lord and let him give us rest? Let's ask him to speak to us through his living word. Lord, we've looked in your word today. And we've learned a lot of things.
00:28:53
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I laid a lot out there. So maybe everyone will not remember everything. But you choose. You choose, Heavenly Father. You choose what each one that hears this ah broadcast or podcast, whatever they need the most, help them remember
Closing Prayer and Blessings
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that.
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Help them not remember. They can forget what I've said, Lord. That's not important. But what you've said, it's so important. That's vital. That's essential.
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They will need these things that are written in your word the rest of their lives. So help them get into the word of God and read what you have left to them.
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In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you so much for joining us again, for Growing in Grace. I pray that you've been blessed. I pray that you found something that's gonna actually help you as you're doing life.
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All right, we'll talk to you next time.
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This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.